When designing a product or system, the use of materials that are incompatible with their future surroundings can lead to serious consequences, potentially causing structural damage, leading to major expenses, or, in the worst case, putting human lives at risk.
ISO 12944 is an international standard classifying environments based on their corrosive severity to guide protective coatings for steel/ductile iron materials. Among these classifications, Grade C5-High (C5-H) represents highly corrosive industrial and coastal environments, designed to resist intense corrosion for of 15 to 25 years before maintenance is needed.
C5-Very High (C5-VH) is the highly corrosive category, which is suitable for high salinity, saltwater and/or very high pollution or significant chloride effects.
It represents environments where the conditions are extremely aggressive and pose a high risk of corrosion. This standard required a multi-layer high-performance protective coating system designed to resist intense corrosion more than 25 years.
Typical examples of C5-H areas include the industrial areas along the Gulf Coast in the United States or coastal industrial zones in Northern Europe, such as those found in the Netherlands.
These regions are subjected to harsh marine conditions and experience high humidity, frequent saltwater spray, as well as industrial emissions, making them highly corrosive environments.
Using an unsuitable material in a C5-High environment will result in rapid deterioration and structural failure. Corrosion will accelerate, causing the metal to weaken and potentially compromise the structure's integrity.
This can result in costly repairs and pose safety hazards to both structures and people.
For C5-H environments, high-performance coatings like zinc-based high-build epoxy are commonly recommended. These multi-layer systems provide excellent barrier protection and corrosion resistance.
BERMAD Zinc-Based, High Build Fb Epoxy (ZBHBE) unique coating system complied with Grange C5, C5-H and C5-VH categories.
Need fire protection design assistance?
BERMAD engineers can assist with fire protection applications, click here to contact our Fire Protection experts.
